Black on red clay pottery bowl of Hopi-Tewa origin with a pierced lug, rim ticking and an abstract design. Probably shaped by Nampeyo and painted by her daughter Annie. Kramer believes the bowl might have been made as early as ca. 1905. (See below.)

In a letter dated July 31, 1997, Barbara Kramer commented on pot 1997-04:

“You asked me to comment on the small red bowl that you recently purchased. I have seen the bowl but do not have it in my possession to study or to describe further now. I believe it was made by Annie Healing, though it is smaller, deeper and not as refined as most of Annie’s work. The design is similar to that in a red bowl collected by Mary Colter, Fred Harvey Company’s architect, in 1904, which is now in the collection of the Mesa Verde Museum, cat #3772. I am enclosing a duplicate of my 35 mm slide of the bowl and a copy of the catalog pages describing the bowl. My photo of the profile of the bowl shows it to be much shallower than their drawing on the second page. It should be noted that I have found no vessels directly attributed to Annie before 1912. All her earlier vessels were attributed to her Mother, Nampeyo, because their work was mingled together for sale. The Museum catalog pages, therefore, name Nampeyo as the maker of the bowl. However, I have been able to identify much of Annie’s early work, and the red bowl cat #3772, is one of her pieces. Annie demonstrated pottery making at Hopi House in the Grand Canyon with her mother, Nampeyo, in 1905 and 1907. The smaller size and shape of your bowl indicate that it might have been made more quickly for tourists, perhaps at the Canyon, which would correspond to the time that Colter bought her red bowl.”

For other bowls that were likely made by Nampeyo and painted by Annie, see 1996-05, 2006-01, 2002-09.

Purchase History:
Purchased on 5/28/97 at an ethnographic show at Sweeney Center from Marti Struever.

Marti wrote: “I believe this vessel to be the work of Nampeyo of Hano (the potter) and Annie Healing, her daughter, as the painter. Ca 1910.”